--- title: "Sounds Like Insurance on Teslas Is Going to Skyrocket Because of All the Vandalism" description: "It was already expensive to insure a Tesla — and now, it looks like it's going to get even more costly amid a spate of vandalism." date: "2025-03-19" modified: "2025-03-19" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/tesla-insurance-rise-vandalism" categories: - "Advanced Transport" - "Tesla" tags: - "elon musk" - "insurance" - "tesla" - "vandalism" --- # Sounds Like Insurance on Teslas Is Going to Skyrocket Because of All the Vandalism ![It was already expensive to insure a Tesla — and now, it looks like it's going to get even more costly amid a spate of vandalism.]() *\Image: Omer Messinger via Getty / Futurism\* It was already [expensive to insure a Tesla]() — and now, it looks like it's going to get even more costly. In [interviews with *Newsweek*](), insurance experts are sounding alarm bells about a potential rate hike due to the spate of [anti-Elon Musk vandalism]() targeting Teslas around the United States. "If vandalism involving Tesla vehicles continues to rise and doesn't go back down, we could see rates rise for comprehensive coverage in the future," explained Matt Brannon, a data journalist with the comparison shopping site Insurify. With [car insurance on the rise nationally](), rate hikes across the board are unfortunately par for the course. But as Brannon noted, Teslas are already one of the most expensive makes to insure, with Model 3s weighing in at an eye-watering $4,362 per year. That's substantially more expensive than a Mercedes Benz A-Class, which [according to the insurance site CarEdge]() costs just under $2,600 per year to insure. Beyond Tesla already punching above other cars in insurance cost — due, most likely, to their propensity for [getting in wrecks]() — there's plenty of precedent to suggest that vandalism may cause rates to spike even higher. Take the "[Kia Boys]()" TikTok trend from a few years back. Thanks to easily-exploitable key insecurities in Kias and Hyundais from the mid-aughts, teens began teaching each other online how to take those cars for joyrides with little difficulty — and ultimately, those specific makes and models became uninsurable. Shannon Martin, an insurance analyst with *Bankrate*, echoed those warnings. "As we have learned from the 2023 TikTok theft trend targeting certain model Kias and Hyundais, if these types of losses continue, carriers could refuse to offer coverage for Tesla vehicles altogether," Martin told *Newsweek*. Paired with car insurers' [likely racist]() propensity for [hiking rates in response]() to crime statistics, there's no reason to think that insurers won't raise rates on Teslas even higher. Things may get even more complicated now that [Musk](), president [Donald Trump](), and attorney general [Pam Bondi]() have declared that Tesla vandalism is "domestic terrorism" — which may, as [some armchair analysts muse](), make the cars [all the more uninsurable](). Just a few years ago, buying a Tesla was a pragmatic financial choice due to all the money you'd save on gas. In Trump and Musk's America, however, owning a Tesla not only brings you [shame and ridicule](), but it could cause your insurance to spike — or your coverage to be dropped entirely. **More on Tesla protests:** [*Elon Musk Searching for Mysterious Billionaire Who’s Making Everyone Hate Tesla*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()